{"id":1042278,"date":"2026-09-04T05:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T05:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1042278\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T05:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T05:36:51","slug":"a-week-before-classes-start-nyc-schools-chancellor-kamar-samuels-highlights-priority-to-desegregate-districts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1042278\/","title":{"rendered":"A week before classes start, NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels highlights priority to desegregate districts"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a Wednesday breakfast hosted by New York Law School, Samuels told an audience of lawyers, professors, government staff and members of the public that school integration was top of mind for him \u2013 and he\u2019d be looking to take concrete steps to make it happen under his leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m the first chancellor to come in and speak directly to school integration,\u201d said Samuels, who\u2019s worked in the city\u2019s public school system for 23 years as a teacher, principal and district superintendent. \u201cThe reason it\u2019s important is because we live in a polarized society. If the first time our kids are connecting with someone across differences is when they end up in a dorm room or when they end up in a job, we would have failed our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to be able to, especially in an environment where current events often lead to bias in schools and in our city, connect across differences every day,\u201d Samuels continued. \u201cThey need to be able to build the necessary empathy skills, and our teachers need to have the skills to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuels has previously helped lead school integration efforts in Manhattan and pushed against some of the high school screening methods that critics say have contributed to racial segregation in schools. He said the school system was launching working groups focused on school integration and was working with district superintendents to look at the \u201cstructural impediments\u201d that were preventing desegregation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 30,000 kids who are in schools that are under-enrolled and pretty segregated,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cWe want to make sure that we are doing what it takes systemically to get those young people what they really need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Samuels speaks at New York Law School just over a week before classes start in the city.Photo by Rochella Providence<\/p>\n

For years, studies<\/a> have shown that New York City\u2019s schools are some of the most segregated in the country. Desegregation advocates have cited the city\u2019s Specialized High School Admissions Test and other opaque screening measures for schools as contributors to the issue.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, admissions data showed that only three Black students<\/a> were admitted to Manhattan\u2019s elite Stuyvesant High School, continuing a downward trend that showed just eight Black students were admitted in 2025 and ten in 2024. Stuyvesant High is representative of many of the city\u2019s elite schools, which offer more specialized and AP classes and better resources, according to data<\/a> showing those schools frequently admit significantly more white students than Black and Latino students.<\/p>\n

City Hall released its first racial equity report earlier this week, which included preliminary planning<\/a> on addressing the issue of segregated schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alongside desegregation, he emphasized he\u2019d also be working to ensure culturally responsive and comfortable for students of color as they become more integrated with white students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIntegration means so many different things for different people,\u201d Samuels said in response to an audience member\u2019s question on keeping schools culturally literate and safe for Black students as they learn around more of their white peers. \u201cI say truly integrated because we oftentimes see schools that are desegregated, but the experience for the marginalized groups in those in the schools still remains the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

We ought to make sure that we are having the real conversations for culturally responsive and sustaining education in our schools to make sure that every single child feels affirmed and is held to high expectations,\u201d Samuels, originally from Jamaica, added.<\/p>\n

\"\"\n<\/p>\n

Samuels said other priorities that fall into his top three included increasing academic rigor and student safety, a trio he developed after talking with families across 75 schools in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c92% of our students say that they feel safe in our schools,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cThat means I have 8% that don\u2019t. We have a lot of work to do there. I think really investing in restorative practices and mental health support is very, very important. We are doubling down on our investment in that in this new year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In terms of academic rigor, Samuels said the school system was adding 44 new bilingual programs, increasing access to literacy interventions for students seeking reading support, working to decrease class sizes in accordance with new mandates, emphasizing critical thinking skill building and prioritizing helping kids who struggle with math.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our culture, we need to think about math a lot differently,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cNo one is comfortable saying, \u2018Oh, you know, I really just can\u2019t read.\u2019 But it\u2019s very fashionable to say, \u2018I\u2019m not a math person.\u2019 I think that has an impact on kids. We need to be working to change the way we think about math.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The school system is also hiring an additional 6,600 teachers and 1,100 teaching fellows this school year, Samuels said.\n<\/p>\n

The new chancellor said he doesn\u2019t take stepping into the role lightly \u2013 Creating the best learning environment possible for the city\u2019s students is something he\u2019s committed his life to. Though he\u2019s now had an extensive career in the city\u2019s Department of Education, he took a bit of a non-traditional path into academia and teaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a subway ad, Samuels said, that spurred him to become a teacher. On the way to a job working in finance roughly two and a half decades ago, an ad caught his eye: \u201cYou remember the name of your first grade teacher. Who will remember your name?\u201d the ad said.<\/p>\n

It made him reassess what he was doing with his life. Soon after, he was a math teacher in the Bronx. Now, he said, he\u2019s taking everything he\u2019s learned over his nearly two and a half decades in the school system to push it forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emphasis is to ensure that New York City public schools are the engine of social mobility in our city,\u201d said Samuels. \u201cThere are structural moves that we need to make sure that happens. I am here for it. I\u2019m here for that work, and excited to continue to lead this great system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a Wednesday breakfast hosted by New York Law School, Samuels told an audience of lawyers, professors, government…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1042279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,407,3228,405,403,404647,270718,5226,5225,5228,5227,24672,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1042278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-education","tag-law","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-schools-chancellor-kamar-samuels","tag-new-york-law-school","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117211156968638724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1042279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}